Shiritsu Ebisu Chuugaku
Shiritsu Ebisu Chuugaku (私立恵比寿中学, Ebichu) is a Japanese Idol group from Tokyo, Japan. The group currently consists Rika Mayama, Ayaka Yasumoto, Mirei Hoshina, Hinata Kashiwagi, Kaho Kobayashi and Riko Nakayama. The group was the creation of 3B Junior, which is a talent agency under Stardust Promotion. History 2009: Formation as a quintet On August 9th, 2009, Ebichu was officially formed and began performing throughout Tokyo. The initial lineup consisted of Kanon Nanaki, Narumi Uno, Reina Miyazaki, Mizuki and Rika Mayama. Both Kanon and Narumi were both performing in the group Piecees prior to Ebichu. They were promoted as being "unpolished" in the advertisements for their shows. At their first show, they only performed covers since they hadn't yet been given their own. By the end of the year, Ayaka Yasumoto and Natsu Anno had joined the group. Ayaka was had only recently been recrutied by Stardust while she was out shopping with her family. Before joining, Ayaka and Natsu both performed in the 3B Junior group, Minitia Bears. 2010: First single and more members On February 14th, Ebichu released their first indie single titled "Asa no Chime ga Narimashita!". The group performed a single release concert that day. Kanon had decided to graduate from the group and the concert acted as her graduation ceremony. While she graduated, Ebichu introduced a new member, Hinaki Yano during the same show. Much like Kanon and Narumi, Hinaki was also a member of Piecees. During the months of April and May, Ebichu would add in more members of the group. First, Aika Hirota joined on April 10th, while Mirei Hoshina, Rio Koike, Hirono Suzuki and Rina Matsuno all joined on May 22nd. Later in the year, Ebichu released their second indie single "Ebizori Diamond!!". After the graduation of Kanon and addition of Natsu, Ayaka, Hinaki, Aika, Mirei, Rio, Hirono and Rina, the single, "Asa no Chime ga Narimashita!", was re-released on November 9th with Kanon removed from the cover and the rest of the lineup all featured. On November 23rd, Hinata Kashiwagi would join after passing her second Stardust audition. 2011: Graduations and Singles 2011 started off with the graduation of Narumi. However, Ebichu would quickly follow this up with releasing their third indie single "Chime!". Their fourth indie single, "The Tissue (Tomaranai Seishun)" was released on April 27th. Unlike other idol groups with so many members, Ebichu had never elected to have a leader. This changed on June 19th when Reina was elected the leader of Ebichu. After her graduation later in the year, Ebichu never elected another president and that remains the case currently. By the time 2011 ended, Ebichu had lost three more members beginning with Hinaki on April 17th, Rio on June 7th and then Reina on December 26th. Reina would be the last graduate of the group until 2014. 2012: Ebichu goes pro After spending 3 years as an indie group, Ebichu was signed to their first major label in February. The label, DefSTAR Records, would be their home for the next 3 years. Months later, the group's first major single and arguably their most well-known, "Kari Keiyaku no Cinderella", was released on May 5th. Their second major single featured two songs, "Go! Go! Here We Go! Rock Lee" and "Otona wa Wakatte Kurenai" and was released on August 29th. 2013: More major singles and debut album Ebichu began the year with the release of a new single on January 16th called "Ume". Five months later on June 5th, they'd release their fourth single with the songs "Te o Tsunagō" and "Kindan no Karma" featured. For the first time ever, Ebichu held a play on June 30th. The play was called "Ebichu Bunka Matsuri ~Ebichu Little Uta Gekidan, Futatabi~". This play was significant, but not for because it was Ebichu's first play. Riko Nakayama, who hadn't yet become an idol, was cast as the daughter to the chairman. Her role was small, but Ebichu's manager, Yuichi Fujii, was said to be very impressed by her. Ebichu's very first album "Chunin" was released on July 24th. The album's headline songs were "Karikeiyaku no Cinderella", " Ume", "Houkago Getabako Rock 'n' Roll MX", "Kindan no Karma", and "Te wo Tsunagou". November 20th marked Ebichu's fifth major single with "Mikakunin Chūgakusei X". In December, Mizuki, Natsu and Suzuki announced they'd all graduate from Ebichu in April 2014. 2014: Graduation of Mizuki, Natsu and Suzuki, and debuts of Riko and Kaho 3Bjunior LIVE FINAL: Ore no Fujii 2014 was held on Janaury 4th. The show was a collaboration of all the groups that had come from the 3Bjunior promotion. It was during this show that Riko and Kaho Kobayashi would be announced as the newest members of Ebichu. Riko and Kaho made their debuts during the "Luck to the Future PART2" show on March 22nd. The graduation of Mizuki, Natsu and Suzuki was held on April 15th at Nippon Budokan. Riko and Kaho's first single with the group, "Butterfly Effect", was released on June 4th and their second with the group, "Haitateki!", was released on November 5th. 2015: Second album Only a year after the announcement of Riko and Kaho's transfer, the group released their second album titled "Kinpachi" on January 28th. The group followed up with two singles later in the year. The first, "Natsudaze Johnny" on June 17th and their first single under SME Records, "Super Hero". Despite the good year, Hinata would run into health problems at the end of the year. On December 15th, she announced she had been diagnosed with sudden deafness in her right ear and had received treatment for her issue. 2016: Third album Following their newest trend of releasing an album every year, the group released "Anarchy" on April 20th. In September, they released their tenth major single, "Massugu". 2017: Death of Rina and fourth album On the morning of February 8th, EMTs were called by Rina's parents to their home. Rina, who had recently returned from a family trip a few days before, had become ill and wasn't able to attend group events. While at home, she was taking treatments to get back into good health, however, her health turned for the worse and she was pronounced dead at the hospital. Days later, doctors confirmed she had passed away from cardiac arrhythmia. Seemingly unaware of the events, Riko and Kaho were on their way to a radio appearance while the news was beginning to spread online. Rina attended her last concert on January 3rd and her last appearance in the group was on January 28th. A public memorial was held on February 24th at Pacifico Yokohama and was attended by fellow Stardust idols. On April 1st, Ebichu announced their fourth album, "Ebicracy", The album was released on May 31st and charted at #1 on Oricon, which was their first. The album was the first to not feature Rina and at the time it was not known if she had worked any on the album. It wasn't until Everything Point 5 was released in December that it was revealed she had in fact recorded vocals for the album. A solo version of "Kanjo Densha" was played on the end of both the documentary and the concert included on disc 2 as well as the last footage of Rina with the group from a photo shoot 2 days prior to her death. 3 months after "Ebicracy" was released, Aika announced her graduation from Ebichu. In November, Ebichu's last single to feature Aika, "Sing along sing a song", was released on the 8th. 2018: Aika graduates and new single On Janauary 3rd, Aika's graduation was held at the legendary Nippon Budokan venue. The show was attended by Mizuki, Natsu and Suzuki, who all three had graduated from the group in the same building 4 years prior. On June 6th, the twelfth single, "Dekadonden" was released. During the Christmas tour in December, Ebichu announced for their 10th anniversary year, the group would release two albums and hold a tour to celebrate the milestone. The first album, MUSiC, was announced on December 23rd and the sixth was announced on the 24th. 2019: MUSiC, sixth album and 10th anniversary On March 13th, MUSiC was released. Their fifth album was #2 on Oricon at launch. Just weeks after release, they announced their 13th major single "Trendy Girl" would be released on June 5th.